NCA plans athlete-centric meeting with state associations

By Baidurjo Bhose

New Delhi, Aug 10 (SocialNews.XYZ) The National Cricket Academy (NCA) has called for a meeting with state associations on Wednesday to discuss the way forward as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) looks to resume cricketing activities in the country with an eye on the coronavirus pandemic.

In the mail, accessed by IANS, Assistant General Manager K.V.P. Rao has written to the state associations highlighting the agenda of the virtual meeting.

The objectives of the meeting are:

Setup a more collaborative approach with the states with respect to athlete centric development.

Introduce states to NCA processes and open up direct lines of communication.

Collect and share data to build a more robust ecosystem.

To take the administrators through the benefits of setting up a structured management system.

Speaking to IANS, a senior state association official said: "The NCA has been shrouded in opaqueness over the last 3 years and it has seemed like a small cosy club and it will take a lot of effort to start with a clean slate. The fact that they are looking to introduce state associations to processes at the NCA is an admission of sorts."

Another state association official spoke about the idea of collecting and sharing data and said: "This will have to be approached with a lot of care especially on account of the Supreme Court recognising the Right to Privacy and the data pertains to players some of whom are under the age of 18.

"As for a structured system, the structure of the NCA itself has been under cloud with roles and boundaries between cricket operations and administration disappearing and appearing at convenience."

The mail also speaks about matters relating to player rehabilitation and how the meeting will present states with injury surveillance findings from domestic season 2019-20, introduce the concept of normative data collection and present the outcome of the work done at NCA so far, introduce the process of assessment, diagnosis and treatment of players at NCA, showcase the technology at NCA, share the vision of athlete management and introduce E10 and present the system put in place for supporting state associations and their physiotherapists.

Pointing at the physiotherapy and injury management aspect, a state association official spoke about the need to ensure transparency in process. "In the last couple of seasons, we have had a lot of issues when it has come to player management with regards to rehabilitation. Some of the top Indian stars have made their displeasure known at the way their rehab went wrong. So, that should be utmost priority," the official pointed.

Source: IANS